Join us to fight for our NHS on Wednesday and the rest of November

Meeting this Wednesday 13th, 6.30pm Victoria Hotel behind the Town Hall, Leeds

Potential stall dates:

• Saturday 16th 11am Sainsbury’s in Headingley
• Saturday 23rd and Sat 30th 11am Pudsey, probably main street near the market
• Saturday Dec 7th – probably Commercial St in the City Centre.
• Wednesday Dec 11th 5-6.30 carols and other songs starting in Dortmund Sq then maybe parading with lanterns to Briggate

Other ways to help:

• Social media
• Eventbrite organising for films
• Deliver/distribute election campaign postcards and/or Health Campaigns Together newspapers

What is happening in general practice?

Derby KONP, 29 October 2019

Presentation (pdf) by Dr John Puntis of Leeds KONP

What is your experience?

GP Training: 5 years at medical school.

• then 2 years Foundation training in hospital post
• then 3 three years of GP Specialty Training, normally including 18 months in an approved training practice with a further 18 months in approved hospital posts
• (some trainees will work in other specialties in hospital between finishing foundation years and entering GP specialty training)
• minimum of 10 years to train a GP; UK medical school places increasing from 6000 to 7500, but will take a long time for NHSE’s ‘5000 new GPs’ – promised by 2021!)

From 2006-13: (Nuffield Trust; https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/is- general-practice-in-crisis) –

• GP posts up 4%; consultants in hospital and community up 27%
• Health Education England – 50% of medical students should go into general practice, but actually only 40% do so at present
• 1 in 10 GP training posts unfilled
• 1/3 of GPs under 50 stated leaving clinical care in next 5 years (but 50% of GPs >50)
• Number of single doctor practices halved, number of practices >10 docs up by 76%
• 8% (£287m) reduction in spending on GP services https://www.rcgp.org.uk/policy/workforce.aspx –
• 16% increase in GP workload over last 5 years
• by 2025, 9.1m people living with multiple serious long term conditions (55% of GP appointments)
• 10,000 more GPs needed General Practice is changing
• historically, businesses (independent contractors) – but part of the NHS
• the number of full-time equivalent GP partners has fallen 4 per cent for each of the past three years to March 2019, while the number of Full Time Equivalent salaried GPs has risen by at least 5 per cent in each of the same three years (i.e. less appetite for taking on business aspects of general practice; discussion re salaried service or partnership model)
• NHS Digital: number of FTE GPs down by 576 over past year; headcount increased 2.3% due to trainees (Matt Hancock praised increase in GP numbers across country!)
• 720,000 more patients registered with GPs this year
• half of all GPs taking part in recent survey said they work beyond their rostered hours at least weekly and feel they cannot cope on a weekly basis

Survey also revealed a third of all doctors intend to reduce their hours in clinical practice within the next year, and 10% intend to take a break from practising medicine over the next year

• increasing workload comes from: long term conditions – complex patients; prevention; domestic violence; safeguarding, etc. etc. the “left shift” from hospital to community = more work for GPs
• practices merging; mega-practises; not embedded in community; cant know patients in same way; therapeutic relationship not there (basis of general practice)
• continuity of care in primary care reduces morbidity and mortality; also have role in protecting patients from health care – but not a policy priority. Good for doctors and patients

Workload is considerable:

• 70% people see GP in 1 year, 90% in 5 years. Only 1 in 20 referred on to specialists (important gatekeeping role)
• GP’s seeing >1m people a day; average GP seeing twice as many people/day as 30 yeas ago
• 11 hour days, 41 daily contacts and half GPs working at unsafe levels Recruitment difficult:
• early retirement; pension issues
• increase in suicide rate: Office for National Statistics showing that 430 health professionals in England and Wales died by suicide from 2011 to 2015, including 81 doctors (= 1 every 18 days), and that female GPs have four times the risk of suicide than the general UK population
• 244 surgeries closed last year; 583 since 2013
• over past year FTE fully qualified GPs fell by 441
• GPs get the blame/stress – e.g. nearly half GPs had patient referral bounced back on 2 week cancer pathway, or downgraded to non-urgent

Primary Care Network:

• the stated aims of PCNs are to tackle the crisis in General Practice, in particular the crisis in recruitment and retention of GPs, by deploying a wider range of health care workers to “take the pressure off GPs”; to encourage GP practices to be part of wider multi-disciplinary teams to deliver improved community based care, thus reducing demand on hospitals; and to incentivise GPs to work together to tackle wider health issues, and reducing health inequalities, as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan.
• £2.3bn going into PCN by 2023 – welcomed by some as way of getting extra resources; others more sceptical (“nail in coffin of tradition general practice”?); most GPs ambivalent
• core primary care contract still there
• but this would change with an Integrated Care Provider contract – covers 1-2 million people, for 10-15 years – GP’s give up their own individual contract; GPs against ICP contract – say it will undermine benefits of working and collaborating together and improving community services

Is it all part of the big plan, or a bulwark against ICP (promoted by NHS England, whereby GPs would give up their practice contract and patient list and merge into a massive organisation covering hundreds of thousands of people)?

• most extra funding in the new contract will not go into core GP services but into Primary Care Networks – a total of £1.8 billion a year by 2022
• to access this funding GP practices in England must sign an extension to their contract to link up with other practices in neighbourhood groups of 30-50,000 patients
• for signing up to the PCN each practice will be paid £1.76 per patient on their list
• further payments will be paid directly to the PCN. This will include £1 per patient for all practices in the PCN; funding for clinical pharmacists, and social prescribers in the first year; and funding for a PCN clinical director. In future years there will be funding for physiotherapists, physicians’ associates and
• most GPs are not paying attention to ‘restricting referrals’ incentive –

potentially hugely undermining of patient trust

• GPs should be able to stay in control and develop sensible collaboration to improve services (says BMA)
• equivalent of 270 GP taken away from font line care in role as PCN directors

Will PCNs rescue General Practice?

• PCN ideas of greater collaboration between practices, multi-disciplinary team working around the patient, especially the most complex and vulnerable, and a wider range of practitioners to provide patient care are not in themselves bad
• wont reduce the need for GPs (7000 short)
• the increased funding to General Practice is not enough to make up for the loss of £1 billion/year over the last decade
• it is unclear where the extra staff will come from (there is a GP and practice nurse workforce crisis, as well as a wider NHS staffing shortage of 100,000)
• cuts to public health, preventive services, social care and community services have further undermined the possibilities of improving care in the community. Add to that the on-going impact of austerity, poverty and inequality and it seems unlikely PCNs will have much impact on health inequalities, given that they have no power over those wider issues.
• PCNs therefore are not the solution to the GP workforce
• Government policy over the past decade has actively undermined General Practice and led to the crisis that it currently faces. The future of General Practice is in jeopardy

What you can do

• locally – join Patient Participation Group at your GP practice
• nationally – fight for proper funding – increase medical school places – increased GP training places – increased nurse training (N.B. no money for training in Mrs May deal)
• recognise huge impact of austerity and poverty on patients and therefore GPs
• demoralisation of GPs; KONP did not campaign against PCN – but did campaign for what we want for primary care (see below)
• General Practice should be an attractive job; 10 minutes/patient, complexity and risk – lets have 20 minutes appointments, breaks, educational sessions – look after the staff – time for the patient, and nurturing the people – needs injection of funding (see also: https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/wp- content/uploads/sites/12/2015/01/building-the-workforce-new-deal- pdf)
• The Charter for General Practice – campaigning around positive demands:

 

KONP Primary Care Charter (DRAFT)

GP services in the NHS: our demands

SUPPORT THE CURRENT GP MODEL THAT GIVES CONTINUITY OF CARE

• Support the traditional model of General Practice that enables personal and continuing
• FULLY FUND IT: Significantly increase core funding to General Practice
• NHSE must end its selective promotion of “GP at Scale” and practice mergers and increase its support to small and medium sized practices, to ensure their flourishing and survival.
• NHSE must consult patients and public about any plans to merge or close practices, including the creation of “super practices”, and provide impact assessments of such plans on travelling time and distances, availability of GP appointments, and continuity of

 

OPPOSE PRIVATISATION AND CORPORATISATION OF GENERAL PRACTICE

• We oppose the takeover of general practice and primary care by for-profit corporations, including digital providers such as
• We oppose plans for Integrated Care Providers, and other corporate models of primary care
• We note the risks inherent in Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and oppose any moves to privatise Primary Care Networks or incorporate them into private provider organisations such as Accountable Care

 

• All staff employed by PCNs should be employed on NHS terms and conditions and

 

 

 

 

 

RIGHT TO SEE YOUR GP

• We demand 10,000 more GPs as recommended by the Royal College of General Practitioners, to improve access and waiting times to see a GP, and to facilitate continuity of care with a known
• We demand the right for patients to have face to face appointments with a GP if that is what they
• We demand an end to the use of IT and APPs as barriers to accessing GPs. All IT must serve to enhance and support General Practice, not replace

 

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY TEAMS ADDITIONAL TO, NOT REPLACING GPs

• Increase the training and funding for practice
• Increase training and funding for other clinical staff to work in practices such as clinical pharmacists and counsellors. Such additional staff to be complementary to and not replacements for
• Increase numbers of community staff such as district nurses, health visitors, school nurses, community diabetic and respiratory nurse specialists, community palliative care nurses and community mental health staff.
• Fund adequate wider services to support primary care in the community including social care, public health and mental health services. This will require a reversal of cuts to local authority budgets, and increased budgets to make up for years of

 

PATIENT & PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY AND ENGAGEMENT IN PRIMARY/COMMUNITY CARE

• Opportunities for genuine patient and public involvement in the development of health services including primary
• No merger of CCGs. Retention of the right of CCGs to veto Integrated Care System plans if they consider they are wrong for the area the CCG
• Enhanced rights for local government scrutiny committees to interrogate, challenge and veto decisions of the ICS which go against the interests of local

 

EQUALITY OF ACCESS FOR ALL

• Remove barriers for marginalised groups in accessing GP care
• Oppose any moves to start charging migrants and others for GP care
• Provide support to homeless people, migrants and other disadvantaged groups to register with a GP practice

 

• Fully fund interpreting services for GP practices

 

 

 

NHS RATIONING AND BARRIERS TO SPECIALIST CARE

• End referral management systems that act as barriers to GPs referring for further care
• End restrictions on GPs’ freedom to
• Allow GPs to prescribe medications that can be bought over the counter
• End prescription charges
• Abolish the current list of banned procedures on the NHS. All procedures for which NICE provides evidence of benefit should be available on

Latest updates – migrant charging, autumn and winter campaigns

Latest minutes

Stop the charging of patients who are migrants!

Leeds KONP recently met with a manager at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. They are liaising with Leeds Asylum Seekers Support network and trying to arrange internal education sessions. There is a BAME group in the hospital who could be approached. Unite is interested in pursuing the issue. Unison had a good motion at their Conference but it didn’t get through. Hospitals are asking GPs to advise them if the patientshould be charged. It is hard to work out from official sites who is expected to pay. It is also not easy to decide what is an emergency which enables treatment regardless. An Ethiopian woman died because her need for treatment was not counted as urgent until it was too late. Noted there are similar issues with refugees in mental health crisis.

All the Royal Colleges have said that charging should be stopped. It doesn’t result in better healthcare or a better local economy. It needs scrapping in Leeds and across Yorkshire.

National Campaigns:

• DocsnotCops
• Patients not Passports

And please write to your MP. We are standing by to get out on the streets of Pudsey and maybe Headingley too in the event an election is called. Although not party political we will be urging people to vote to stop the destruction and privatisation of our NHS.

Regardless of whether or not there is an election before Christmas on Sat 7th Dec,time to be confirmed depending on availability of our musicians ! We will be out on the street in town ( Commercial St ) just along from Boots near Accessorize

 “No return to pre war days”

And  probably on Thursday 19th December 5-6.30 venue to be confirmed.

We are also planning to have a social evening in February with musical turns, singing, skits, poetry and whatever you want to bring – magic tricks fine !!

Join our meetings in November : Wed November 13th and Wed Nov 27th, 6.30 – 8pm in The Victoria Hotel immediately behind Leeds Town Hall

 

Join us this week – stalls, medicines and under the knife

Saturday 12 Oct Leeds KONP stall 11am in Headingley outside Sainsbury’s. Any help appreciated or just drop by to say hello

Thursday 17th Oct 7pm Leeds Hospital Alert Public meeting on What will Happen to the Supply of \medicines after 31st Oct. at St. Margaret’s Parish Church ,Church Lane, Horsforth LS18 5LA

Friday 18th October, 7.30pm “Under the Knife” film screening at HEART in Headingly organised by Leeds KONP . Book a place free at http://www.undertheknifefilm.co.uk/screenings

Saturday 19th October 10.30 – 4.30pm Trade Union Climate Change Conference , Notre Dame College

Register free at http://www.tiny.cc/crisis2019

22nd October 1.30pm Leeds Adults, Health and Active lifestyles Scrutiny Board in the Civic Hall.

YEP letter – NHS bungs for elections not needed, substantial long term capital assessment of NHS needs is

Letter in YEP from Dr John Puntis

Dear Sir,
re: Game-changing NHS investment is long overdue; YEP Sept 30th 2019
word count: 299
It would be wonderful to have a state of the art children’s hospital, however, I agree with your editorial that we should believe it when we see it. The prime minister has said “40 new hospitals will be built”, while 34 are in fact ‘old hospitals’ being given around £9m each for repairs and drawing up future unfunded plans (the LGI developments cost £450m); £2.7bn goes to six trusts with hospitals badly in need of upgrading. The General Infirmary would normally call this additional ‘wings’ rather than ‘new hospitals’.

The current backlog of NHS maintenance in England amounts to >£6bn – work urgently needed to address patient safety issues. Dozens of NHS trust upgrade projects have been delayed or cancelled and a realistic figure for investment would be £3bn every year for the next 5 years; David Prior, chairman of NHS England suggests £50bn overall.

Experience suggests that prime ministerial promises to the NHS need to be taken with a pinch of salt. A recent pledge of £1.8bn for capital funding turned out to be mostly money that trusts already had but were forbidden from using. Similarly, £25m ‘given’ for palliative and end of life care was money diverted from other services.

In properly funding the NHS, over 100,000 staff vacancies, future plans for public heath spending as a way of decreasing demand for health care, and investment in social care would all need to be taken into account.

Rather than a bung to the electorate, what is needed is a substantial long-term capital settlement allocated on the basis of a clear assessment of the NHS’s needs. So lets hope the children of Yorkshire do get to benefit from a new wing in the Infirmary, but don’t hold your breath, because you can’t always believe what you are told.

Dr John Puntis, Chair Leeds Keep Our NHS Public

NHS Funding response from Keep Our NHS Public

Leeds Hospital Alert

40 little white lies – hospitals are neither 40 nor new

KONP’s reply to the Boris Johnson election propaganda misinformation bandwagon

34 out of the ‘40 new hospitals’ announced by BorisJohnson in time for the Tory Party conference today, are in fact EXISTING hospitals which are being given only £100 million BETWEEN THEM for repairs. So Johnson and Health Minister Hancock are caught lying again. In fact there is a £6 billion deficit in new building, repairs and equipment. The NHS has only a SEVENTH of the funds necessary to bring the provision of scanners up to the EU average level!

The misleading promise of a ‘capital injection’ has to be set against the current £6bn deficit. Even then, the money is over 5-10 YEARS. Coming in two waves (ripples compared to what is needed), £2.7bn is said to rebuild six hospitals by 2025 NOT NEW hospitals; and £100m in…

View original post 311 more words

We would love to see you at our next meeting – here’s what’s been happening

Notes of our last meeting with a recent statement from national KONP re the Tories latest announcement re £30bn … well maybe less than 3bn ….for 40 new hospitals … or maybe 6 not so new hospital redevelopments. There is delight in Leeds that the plans for new build at LGI may have got its legs – as long as you can trust Boris Johnson !!

LEEDS_KONP_mtg_26.9.19

John is writing to the YEP who are always keen to have readers’ letters so do give it a shot if you feel like pitching in on this or any other issues.

The mental health summit on Saturday in London went very well with moving and shocking testimony from survivors, parents, relatives of people who have committed suicide, psychologists, clinicians, campaigners as well as stories of fighting back against desperately inadequate services and lots of enthusiasm and positive ideas for working together on common goals.

The demonstration against Austerity on Sunday organised by The People’s Assembly , Unison et al was stunningly well attended despite the weather ranging from fine drizzle to steady rain and there were stirring speeches from Labour shadow Cabinet ministers, including Richard Burgon from Leeds and Angela Raynor, Frances O’ Grady from the TUC, Louise Irvine GP from KONP and lots more

Coming up soon :

11.10 2.15 – 4.15 Yorkshire Health Campaigns Together Network Meeting at Mill Hill Chapel in City Square.

12.10 KONP STALL, Headingley 11am- 12.15ish outside Sainsbury’s on Headingley Lane near the pedestrian lights

17.10. 7.30 Public Meeting on What will Happen to the Supply of Medicines after 31^st Oct. organised by Leeds Hospital Alert at St. Margaret’s Parish Church ,Church Lane, Horsforth LS18 5LA

18.10 “Under The Knife” film at HEART 7.30pm Please get a free ticket asap at www.undertheknifefilm.co.uk/screenings as half the seats were taken yesterday:

Under_the_Knife_flier_U_T_K_A5_flyer

19.10 Leeds TUC Climate Change Conference. 10.30-4.30 at Notre Dame College . Book places at www.tiny.cc/crisis2019

NEXT MEETING will be on Wednesday 9th October 6.30 – 8pm in The Victoria Hotel, directly behind the Town Hall